what defines a sports car? Options

[d3ath2009]

my roommate ticked me off the other day bc he said my car is not a sports car... do i asked him how my celica wasnt a sports car and all he could say is "it just isnt".... so what r eveerybody's opinions on sports cars?

[yarik83]

Lets not confuse a "sports car" with a "sporty car". There are many criteria that differentiate the two.

A sport car usually has lots of horse power, accelerates fast as hell and pull g's on a corner.

A sporty car usually has adequate amount of horse power to get it 0-60 in 8-11 seconds or so and can not pull any kind of g's anywhere unless it is spinning out doing twirly twists on a mountain road where driver is about to fall to his death and car is bouncing off the mountain as it tumbles.

The look may add a "sporty feel" and that is why average teenager geared car looks kind of cool and goes kind of ok but it will not make your adrenalin gland work overdrive.

By comparison when you drive in a sport car (even as passenger) you can feel acceleration force, you can feel superb handling (ie taking 90 degree corner going 45 without spinning out).

A 1994-1999 celica st/gt is not a sports car. It is a sporty car.
A 1994-1999 celica gt4 is a sport car because it is about 2-3 times more powerful and agile than your average 6gc.

Only way to experience what a true sport car feel like is to drive one or be driven in it. Exact words coming out of your mouth will be "holly sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep". And then you slow down at the traffic light, feel your veins pumping, your face swollen, your skin returning to its normal condition and a huge sense of pride. That is what it is like to drive a sport car.

You are right in classifying sport cars into different categories.

A sporty car is something like mitsubishi eclipse.
A sport car is something like mitsubishi evolution
A high performance sport car is something like a nissan gtr
A exotic luxury car is something like a lamborgini

True exotic cars like ferraris, lambo's, bugattis, zondas etc rarely get driven at all. 9/10 times they are used by filthy rich people who drive them from events and back and their normal cars would be something like a mercedes.

True high performance sport cars usually sit in a garage unless they are brought to a race track every once in a while.

True sport cars are rare and that is why you do not see them drive all over the place. To this day having moved to florida I have only seen 24 mitsibishi's evolutions and 23 of those were at dealer lots when I was shopping around. I have only seen 2 supras since 2007... maybe 10 sti's and I live in a heavily populated part of florida.

Now for all of us regular folks there are sporty cars. eclipses, civics, tiburons, celicas etc.